1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to a card edge connector having an improved retainer.
2. Description of Related Art
A card edge connector is widely used to connect a daughter Printed Circuit Board (PCB) to a mother PCB. A typical type of the card edge connector is used for connecting an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) card to a computer mother board. A conventional card edge connector comprises an insulative housing defining an elongate central slot for receiving a mating edge of a daughter board. Two rows of passageways are defined on opposite sides of the central slot for receiving and retaining conductive contacts which are allowed to engage conductive pads on the mating edge of the daughter board obvious. Such a connector cannot securely retain the daughter board in the card edge connector when the card edge connector or the daughter board is subject to vibration. Thus, an AGP connector equipped with a retainer is desired to secure the daughter board.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,124 discloses a conventional AGP connector with a separate retainer. The separate retainer has an elongated frame tightly enclosing a dielectric housing of the AGP connector and a resilient arm integrally extending from one end of the frame along a longitudinal direction of the dielectric housing and having a projection formed thereon. The resilient arm allows a user to selectively engage/disengage the projection with/from a notch of the daughter board. However, it is clear that the retainer with a complicated structure is difficult and costly to manufacture. Furthermore, during the course of releasing the daughter board, the deflection of the resilient arm would cause the dielectric housing slightly shaking along a transverse direction of the housing. Repeated shaking would adversely affect the signal transmission between the mother PCB and the daughter PCB.
Hence, a card edge connector with improved retainer is desired to overcome the disadvantage of the prior art.